I remember 5-6 years ago we would consider a benefits discussion from a sales candidate a bit of a red flag. If the candidate was asking about benefits early in the process, we became suspicious that they were looking to retire on the company’s payroll.

Oh how times have changed. The fact that more of this cost is being pushed to the employee makes this topic a valid one for early in a hiring process. We still prefer to have candidates discuss the commission plan, market position and value proposition, but benefits are a real cost in the equation.

From Inc.com comes this article with survey results that are not surprising (emphasis mine):

…81 percent said health-care costs were up significantly in the past year, according to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, a New York-based trade group. About a quarter of respondents said employees will end up shouldering more of these costs. Others strategies included offering high-deductible consumer-driven plans, changing health-care providers, or reducing the level of employee benefits, the survey found.

Employee health-care costs have risen by 5 to 20 percent in the past year alone, respondents said.

If you have a strong benefits package, it would be wise to introduce it early into the discussions with final candidates. If your offering is less than strong, do not worry about it. More companies are changing (downclicking) their packages every day.

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Longer sales cycles require salespeople and sales managers with abilities that match that time horizon. This week’s trait is important for any sales position that is asked to navigate an extended sale.

Long Range Planning
This is the ability to identify long-range goals and design realistic plans to attain them. It is the ability to see the big picture and then determine the direction to take and resources to use to attain future goals.

A salesperson with strength in this capacity is able to effectively €œsee into the future,€ forecast needs and comprehend how certain situations or procedures will meet those needs.

A weakness in this area might be due to a salesperson€™s being too €œpresent€ oriented. They spend more time on solving current problems and attaining immediate results than they do on eyeing future problems or needs.

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Salary.com released its annual poll regarding time wasted by employees.  It appears that after 3 years of polling, 1.7 to 2.0 hours seems to be the steady average for an 8.5 hour day.  The poll seems somewhat silly to me, but I did enjoy these closing graphs:

Companies should look on wasted time as comparable to a recess for adults, which can make them more productive in the long run, he said.

€œThere is always room for wasting time during the day,€ he said. €œAt some point, you have to step off the treadmill and recharge the batteries. €¦ Not all wasted time is a net loss.€

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Inc.com’s article Business Owners Rank Internet as Most Important Marketing Tool speaks to the marketing efforts of small companies.  The poll only involved 250 business owners so it is a small sample size, but let me unpack the article this way:

While e-mail may top the list of Internet-related activities, many small businesses have begun implementing online advertising strategies. Of survey respondents, 59 percent use online ads and 68 percent utilize search engine optimization “sometimes” or “often.”

Business owners are making efforts to increase their Internet presence. Forty-four percent say they plan on spending more on Internet tools this year compared to 2006, while 27 percent plan to spend the same amount as last year. The amount small businesses will shell out for their Web activities varies, with the largest group (45 percent) spending less than $2,500.

Seems like these owners are driven to invest in their company’s Internet presence.  But then there is this:

Online social tools like blogs and message boards, however, are not as popular an option for business marketing. Almost half of small business owners never use a blog, 37 percent never visit message boards or chat rooms, and 59 percent have never tried the virtual world of Second Life.

Grouping blogs, chat rooms and Second Life together is quite a stretch.  But half of the owners never use a blog?  That is remarkable to me.  These owners are missing out on volumes of information that could benefit their company.

Also, investing in a blog for their own company would seem to be an investment with a tremendous return – especially if 44% are planning to spend more on Internet tools this year.  Personally, I can say that this blog has dramatically changed our business in ways we never imagined when we first started it.

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Every company can offer a reward similar to what is offered in this Pioneer Press story – Time off is a great summer motivator at small businesses.  Simple.  Valued.  This is a good approach for any business in developing reward programs especially for Gen Y workers (emphasis mine):

Owners do have other ways of motivating staffers in the summer, by catering breakfasts or lunches or sponsoring picnics, trips to museums and other social events. The point is to help make working during the summer more palatable, and, more important, to boost morale in a way that will result in increased productivity all year long.

…

Besides improving morale and motivating workers, summer perks like time off will help a company hire and keep good staffers.

His company allows its 53 employees to leave at 1 p.m. on eight of 12 Fridays during the summer. The company also has an outing each summer; this year, it’s a three-hour cruise out of Annapolis.

And towards the end of the article is some sage advice in the modern-day market:

“You attract and keep people not just by salary … but by giving people some flexibility and recognition that they have lives outside of work.”

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From Yahoo! Finance comes this article – How Loud is too Loud?  As you might guess, the loud phone talker topped the survey as the most annoying office habit.  Being an auditory person, I can agree with that one.  I’m always telling the Rock Star to use his indoor voice since his voice carries a country mile.

Despite the laundry list of complaints, the loud talker wins the award for most annoying. Of 2,318 people surveyed in March 2006 by Harris Interactive and Randstad, 32% say an office loud talker is their biggest pet peeve. Coming in a close second at 30% is using an annoying cellphone ringtone; 22% said speakerphones are their No. 1 peeve.

I worked in a cube farm early in my career and was a neighbor to a speakerphone talker.  I would have voted that as the most annoying habit.  This guy would talk to prospects and customers with a speakerphone that would clip both sides of the discussion (not a full duplex speakerphone).  I was amazed that he sold anything at all.

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SMT (Sales & Marketing Training) has an article in its recent newsletter that surveyed its members for advice they would give to new sales managers.  The author has provided the top 4 pieces of advice:

• Assessing talent is a first step
• Coaching the €œcoachable€ spending appropriate time on those individuals
• Avoid falling into the trap of €œwhat made you successful as a rep€ will make you successful as a manager
• Setting expectations and goals

I couldn’t agree more with these 4 items, especially the first one.  The contributors expanded on their suggestions:

€œAssess the strengths, weaknesses and development needs of your team. Review your team by your success measures. Set plans against benchmarks and focus on what you can do to improve the best producers.€

Absolutely.  We assist new sales managers by providing an objective assessment of their team and providing a development plan to target the right benchmarks for each individual.  Another piece of sound advice occurs later in the article:

€œSpend time with your reps and coach them.  Don’t just tell them they have to do this or that (a Drill Sergeant), work with them and coach them to be better performers (a manager).€

This is a top issue for sales managers.  We encounter many who appear to take a completely hands-off approach.  I’m not sure if they consciously do this to avoid accountability for the rep’s performance or if they simply are not sure of what to do.  Either way, a detached drill sergeant is not an effective management method in today’s business world.

Sales managers need to stay involved with their reps in order to develop them further and grow the revenue stream.  This growth occurs by knowing the rep’s pipeline and coaching them to expand upon their strengths.

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Yes according to a recent study by Capital Consulting in London. I came across this short little article from Workforce Management in a newsletter. It is a short artice so I will reproduce it in it’s entirety (emphasis is mine):

At Least Say Thank You:
Shoddy recruiting does more than chase away potential high performers. New research suggests it also may cost companies in the marketplace. Capital Consulting in London says nearly one-quarter of job seekers have been poorly treated when applying for a job, and they frequently take out their frustrations by broadcasting the news far and wide: 31 percent share the bad experience with three to five people, with 24 percent telling six or more people. These sensitive job seekers use their leverage as consumers too, with 53 percent vowing to never purchase products or services from the offending companies. The biggest complaint centers on lack of communication, with 53 percent expressing anger at not being told why they weren€™t chosen for a position.

As we run our process for our clients the one thing I make sure I do is let candidates know when they have been eliminated from the process. It is amazing how many thank you’s I receive back from these candidates. They are truly thankful that I have communicated with them openly. So are your recruiting efforts counterproductive to your marketing efforts?

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In the past several weeks I have been working with one of our clients on a sales position that they are desperately trying to fill. On numerous occasions they have said it needs to be filled quickly. I can appreciate this approach, however the actions of the client are not congruent with their words. Let me explain.

We have a strong candidate that has interviewed several times in-person and on the phone. Unfortunately, he has been waiting 2 weeks for a follow-up call from one of the managers to set up what he was told would be the final interview. Before you pass judgement think back over your latest hires. Have you always followed through on your statements to candidates?

Now this instance might be a little extreme but I felt that this was a great example to illustrate a point. Remarkably, there is one area for which it seems we are often stuck prompting our clients – keep the process moving by following through on their promises.

If you tell a candidate you will get back to them in a few days, make sure it is within a few days. It is easy to let normal business activities overwhelm you, but the candidate is watching you through this process too. The candidate assumes that this is the company at its best. They are thinking if it takes you several weeks to set up an appointment to meet with them, how long will it take you to get back to them when they need something from you when a big order (heck, even a small order) is on the line? They want to work for a company that follows through on its word.

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From Podcasting News – Nearly One Out Of Ten Companies Has Fired A Blogger:

Nearly one out of ten large companies has fired an employee for violating corporate blogging or message board policies, according to a survey conducted by Proofpoint, a company that specializes in corporate messaging security. 19 percent of the companies have disciplined an employee for violating corporate blogging or message board policies.

It would be interesting to know what some of the violations entailed. We’re not familiar with what companies use for their blogging policy but we would be most interesting to know what is a typical policy.

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